


Swirl

by Dzuljeta



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Eventual Fluff, Explanations, F/M, Female Friendship, Jealousy, Misunderstandings, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Time Lady Rose, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-06-01 14:06:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15144758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dzuljeta/pseuds/Dzuljeta
Summary: The Doctor is visibly more interested in spending time with Reinette than with Rose.Rose decides to leave.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> BBC owns everything.
> 
> It's half past three in the morning. My mistakes are my own. :(

**Swirl**

Rose smiled at Martha with a bitter look in her eyes. Who could have thought everything was going to end like this…

She has suppressed an unwelcome sob from leaving her lips. The girl was feeling exhausted and broken, not expecting for anything remotely good to come out of this, not to her. To Martha, maybe, if she was going to continue with her efforts to make the Doctor fall for her. It was no longer her business. Rose was convinced leaving now was only going to make the goodbye less painful in the long run.

“Go ahead, Martha. Maybe you will succeed. I am freeing the way for you. For anyone. But if it ends in tears, don't blame me.”

Martha stared at her, petrified. As much as she had disliked the fact the Doctor has only paid attention to Rose, ever since she has returned, the love in his eyes was undeniable.

The dark-skinned companion understood she should be happy. She had never thought her infatuation with the Doctor has been so easy to see, as Rose has kindly kept her impressions to herself. Yet the hurt seeping through this young woman has made Martha want to pull her supposed rival into a hug. She was certain both Rose and the Doctor were going to regret this until the end of their lives.

“Calm down, Rose. A quarrel doesn't mean-”

 _A quarrel?_ “He has been kissing her! Telling her-” she inhaled. “Telling her- oh, bloody hell.”

Rose ran out of the ship, sobbing. Only to run into the one she's been trying to run away from.

“Rose! Rose! You don’t understand-”

“Go to hell,” she hissed, never lowering her pace in hurrying away from the Doctor. All he has ever known was breaking the hearts of everyone dear to him, it seemed.

“I didn't mean to! It was all just a stupid misunderstanding!”

Rose hated the fact he didn’t seem to be out of breath when chasing her, but she was not going to give in.

“I don't care. Not any more.” Her voice was terrifyingly even, even if the girl was burning with feelings inside.

“I'm sorry, Rose So sorry-!”

“Go to your whores and leave me alone.”

“Rose!” The Doctor panicked. She could not leave him, just like that! “Is this how you think I am? Someone looking for-”

The fair-haired companion grimaced at him, turning and walking away. He followed straight after.

“Get away from me. Please.”

“I can't. I would never forgive myself.”

Rose hated herself for allowing her frustration to be seen, but she couldn’t simply swallow it.

”So, now you can't? Go fuck them all. Screw my trust, screw my love. Just leave me alone!” Rose smiled at the TARDIS… and moved past it. Then, she broke into a run. He was better than her in this.

“Rose. My darling, my friend, my- listen to me! I am telling you things I never would've-”

She grimaced. “The next thing you are going to say is that you are in love with me. Doesn't work that way. I'm furious at you.”

“But... I love you!”

“Up until you find someone else?”

“Are you even listening to me, Rose? I have just admitted my feelings for you! Doesn't that mean anything to you?”

”'It does,” she bit her lip hard, trying not to scream in frustration. It was possible she was going to give in.

"Please, love. Listen to me. I love you and only you. I have told so to Reinette multiple times, I swear."

“But there she is, again and again finding reasons to see you! To pull you into a snog every time, as if you were incapable of resisting her-”

 _Heavens. Is this truly what he thinks it is? A couple of innocent kisses?_ Martha Jones could not keep away from trying to help Rose stand her ground.

“Ahem. Sorry to interrupt, Doctor, but you were clearly intending to go further with this posh Reinette woman. You have agreed to her suggestions in decorating your room, for Heaven’s sake! How _dare_ you expect of Rose to come back to you, after every of these tiny details suggest you have been wanting for someone else to take up her place?”

The Doctor growled, frustrated. “I have been expecting she would join us on a couple of trips, that’s all!”

Martha Jones was not having any of it. “If Rose doesn’t give you what you want in the _shagging_ department, even after all this time of you sharing a room, it’s your own fault! Have you ever told her you loved her?”

The dark-skinned companion gave Rose a questioning look, receiving a shake of the head. Even if Martha was not sure whether this meant the Doctor hasn’t told her the important words or if the companion was trying to make her stop talking, the well-hidden wish to make things right has erupted.

“However, you keep telling these things to this Reinette freely! More than that, you have pretty much implied she was welcome to stay in your room, currently decorated to _her_ tastes! How do you think Rose must feel?”

The Time Lord could only gape at Martha’s reasoning.

“If Rose chooses to leave, I will only congratulate her.”

 _Rose…_ The Doctor did not care if this was going to cause them trouble. He knew she could hear him. _This is not what this is._

Rose cleared her throat. “I see the dreadful decorations in your room every day. Recently, you have even changed the colours of the room into that dreadful sparkly yellowish…”  

“Have you even asked her, before making these changes?” Martha was startled.

The Doctor gulped at her, ready to finally disclose everything to her. To them both, as it was clear Martha was not going anywhere.

“The room was supposed to be Reinette’s, back when I thought she was going to travel with us. This is why I have kept altering it whenever she arrived.”

Rose was trying her best not to burst out crying, looking at Martha for support.

“Are her visits over, at least? Or are you going to torture Rose with her frequent visits aboard further?” The concerned companion asked him.

The Doctor exhaled. “She’s gone.”

 _Reinette is a bloody courtesan. All she has ever wanted from me were passionate kisses and… well, things I have refused to give her. She has kept coming and trying to lure me into shagging her!_ “It’s funny, really, how close to the truth-”

Rose inhaled. The words she was sure the Doctor knew what to make out of were not supposed to be heard by anyone else.


	2. Chapter 2

**Previously...**

_ Rose inhaled. The words she was sure the Doctor knew what to make out of were not supposed to be heard by anyone else. _

* * *

 

 

**Swirl**

**2.**

 

_ I’m sorry, my Doctor. I simply can’t lunge back into travelling aboard the TARDIS when I know- _

The Doctor gulped.  _ I’m sorry, I didn’t think- _

Rose could read the apology in his eyes, but that hasn’t been enough.  _ I can see you didn’t think when you have invited Mickey on board, but this- _

 

Martha Jones was the first to speak, ignorant towards whatever communication the couple might have been using. It did not look like anything pleasant, Rose visibly still trying to fight her tears from erupting.

“You're an idiot, Doctor. Do you even understand what your inexplicable choices and actions might have caused?! You might have lost Rose for good!”

The Time Lord inhaled. “I know and I'm sorry. I have been a fool.”  _ Could I make up for it, in any way? Rose? _

Rose shrugged.  _ I thought you knew better, Doctor. I  _ trusted  _ you! Would have done anything you asked, but no, you have to go and invite a  _ prostitute  _ to travel with us? How do you think I must have felt? _

He gulped. “I don’t intend to leave until you forgive me, love,” the alien breathed at her.

“Only for you to fall to your knees when seeing her again?” The girl’s voice was bitter, but she was almost exploding with disillusion.

The Doctor’s eyes widened. He loved Rose, loved her more than anything in the universe. So what if she was nowhere as experienced in the ways of seduction?  _ What must I do to convince you the woman is never coming back? _

She exhaled, dubious. Her mother and her life with Jimmy Stone have taught her more than any novel. “Reinette might be gone, but there are others.”

Martha shook her head, afraid Rose might include her in such a list. The dark-skinned companion understood having a friend on board was better than keeping to some unrequited crush on a Time Lord who was in love with somebody else. “Not me, I promise!”

Rose nodded. “You have been the one trying to talk me out of it, at least!”

Martha nodded, trying not to look at the Doctor, who was now keeping his eyes away, not used to feeling ashamed. “I can imagine how your unjustifiable choices must have made Rose feel, Doctor.” As a woman, she could relate.

The Doctor was ready to face the well-deserved attack from his companions. “I know. I should have been firmer and should have told Reinette to-”

- _ go to hell, _ Rose suggested.

“The real question is whether your promise is true or not,” Martha shrugged.

“What do you mean?” The Doctor eyed her curiously.

“Until your room is decorated to Reinette’s tastes, I don’t think Rose is going to enjoy staying there,” Martha said reasonably, looking for agreement in the fair-haired companion’s eyes.

Rose nodded, seeing honest confusion on the Doctor’s face. “Hasn’t the old girl redecorated my room yet? I think she must have, to prove to both of you-”

Martha sent the other companion a supporting look. “Wait here. I’ll go and check,” she assured, quickly entering the TARDIS and returning a couple of seconds later. 

“Nope. Still yellow and shiny,” she sighed. “This can mean a lot of things. I’m sorry, Rose,” Martha spoke honestly. “You might have to kick the bloody courtesan out herself,” she whispered, feeling so much better the moment she understood whose side she wanted to be on.

“I’d rather watch the Doctor getting out of the situation on his own,” she glared at him.  _ If you’d rather keep her - tell me. I know the way. _

“This might be my final trip with you, as well,” Martha said seriously. “If you keep behaving like… like Don Juan, this is no place for me to stay. I’m sure Rose agrees.”

Rose exhaled. “I am leaving you to it,” she breathed out. “I’d rather have some peaceful time aboard, even if the old girl is the only one truly understanding the depth of the situation.”   _ Even if this is my last day inside the TARDIS. _

Leaving her family behind, only to get  _ this  _ to her face… The girl was quick to disappear aboard, the old girl willing to make sure the Doctor couldn’t find her, not until the courtesan was gone, once and for all.

The sentient time and space ship, having once shown her heart to this kind and loving once-human, couldn’t allow her to leave what was supposed their everlasting future together behind.

However, she wasn’t going to forgive the Doctor so easily, particularly knowing he could have resisted Reinette’s advances ages ago. Bathing Rose in soothing waves of assurance, the old girl could not be at two places at once. But there was something she  _ could  _ do.  _ May I?  _ The TARDIS sang the question to her.

Rose breathed out.  _ I refuse to go out and see the Doctor unable to resist the snog of Reinette bloody Poisson yet again, I’m sorry! _

The clever vessel gave out an understanding sound, yet Rose could feel she was becoming one known as the Bad Wolf yet again… And the Bad Wolf wasn’t afraid to face some tiny, worthless beings trying to take away Rose’s happiness.

* * *

 

The Time Lord could barely have enough time to realise Reinette was there with him, giggling and beaming at the puzzled alien excitedly. “Missed me, I hope?”

The Doctor shook his head. “No! I thought I’ve told you to leave and never return!”

“However, I’m still here, still willing to gift my body to you, Doctor,” she cooed. 

“No. Go away and leave! I don’t want you!”

“Are you absolutely sure?” Reinette breathed into him, her voice sweet and enticing. It seemed she did not intend to give up until the Doctor has given in to her charms. “I’m sure your Rose has never given you the things I can,” she spoke certainly.

Rose spared a soothing glance Martha’s way. “Calm down. If my Doctor can’t say no to some people, I can,” the Bad Wolf smiled, rejoicing at seeing honest dread on Reinette’s face. “I know, Doctor, I know this is cheating. But if Reinette keeps entering our lives uninvited, we both know what I can do,” the Bad Wolf variation of Rose spoke calmly. “Trust me, Reinette… You’d rather not know,” she finished calmly. 

The Doctor was both thankful and startled about what the tandem of the two women he loved could do.

“R-rose. I didn’t know you were-” Reinette managed. “Allow me to leave, and I won’t come in your or in the Doctor’s way, ever, I swear!”

The speed in which the courtesan has disappeared out of sight has been… record-breaking.


End file.
